Professional Practice

Professional Practice, which includes practicum and internship, provides for the application of theory and the development of counseling skills under supervision. These experiences will provide opportunities for students to counsel clients who represent the ethnic and demographic diversity of their community. A learning atmosphere of trust and safety is established in group supervision while students become progressively focused on looking at their work with clients and the development of their professional role.

Students are required to complete a one semester supervised practicum that totals a minimum of 100 clock hours, and a 600 hour internship which is begun only after successful completion of the student’s practicum and admission to internship. The practicum and internship provide an opportunity to perform, on a limited basis and under supervision, some of the activities that a regularly employed staff member in the setting would be expected to perform. A regularly employed staff member is defined as a person occupying the professional role to which the student is aspiring. Care is taken to ensure that each student is supervised by a licensed clinician in either individual (on-site) or group (campus) supervision, normally both.